Please use this topic to discuss World View Enterprises and to loft passengers 19 miles (30 kilometers) into Earth's atmosphere using a high-altitude balloon.

gliderpilotuk

I'd take a flight in a U-2 or Mig-25 over that any day.

Robert Pearlman

With regards to comparisons to the MiG-25 — or for that matter, XCOR's Lynx — it's all about priorities. If you want to go because you want to "rocket" to altitude, being pressed back into your seat on the climb up, then sure, a jet experience is for you.

But if your desire is to see Earth, and perhaps more pressingly, film or photograph the planet below, World View's capsule looks to provide the more stable and enabling platform. Even the U-2, which can stay at altitude just as long (if not longer), the canopy limits your field of view, whereas the cupola-like windows on the World View capsule appear to provide panoramic vistas.

Having once sold rides on the MiG-25 to 18 miles high and screened the footage returned from such trips, I would personally choose the World View experience over the Foxbat.

p51

Hmm. Same folks who promise they'll do the Mars fly-by... someday.

While it's far more plausible than many of the other promises companies like this have made in recent years, I'll still file this under the, "I'll believe it when I see people stepping aboard for the actual trip" heading.

That said, assuming they really do this. I wonder if this will be fully presurized capsule or if everyone will have their own pressure suits. I for one wouldn't dream of stepping into something like that without personal protection from rapid depressurization.

Robert Pearlman

Jane Poynter and Taber MacCullum both founded Paragon Space Development Corp., which is also involved with Inspiration Mars, but the two organizations are separate.

(Alan Stern is also leading up Golden Spike Co., which is developing commercial lunar flights.)

World View apparently has the financial backing of Philippe Bourguignon, a former president of Euro Disney, and the VegasTech Fund.

quote:Originally posted by p51:I wonder if this will be fully presurized capsule or if everyone will have their own pressure suits.

Based on the video, which is of course only conceptual, the capsule has a shirt-sleeve environment.

tnperri

I personally would like to try it. Anyone got 75 grand they can donate to me?

Skyguy48

I went with Space Adventures on the Mig 25 flying over Moscow, It was such a humbling experience to be on the "other side of the sky" and to see the thin mist that keeps us all alive that is our atmosphere. The English language does not have the words I felt after that trip.

However, being in an air breathing Foxbat it can only stay up there for minutes, so, yes Robert I would fully agree that the balloon trip would be something very special indeed.

Frewi80

Breathtaking Space Video Previews What World View Voyagers Will Experience

You see a lot of animation but not an 'actual' take off or landing... Just curious about that landing part!